Simba Farm
First day in Tanzania. Landed at Kili International from Nairobi and picked up our next little Rav 4x4. Popped into a nearby town to Simba Farm on western slopes of Mt. Kili (as locals call it) and headed off into the sticks. After a couple of hours of dust and only 60km we arrived at a working farm complete with cattle, goats, combines etc. Stunning little homestead built back in 1932 or so. Has been in the hands of a Dutch family since around the 80s and they recently turned the farm into a guest lodge as well. After the hectic...

John writing: Since it would be a long drive back to Arusha and Kilimanjaro on Wednesday March 30, we left right after breakfast. For the past three days it has just been the three of us as guests at the camp, so there was a three-to-one ratio of staff to guests. As soon as we left, they were going to finish dismantling the camp to move it further north. It seems a shame to leave when there are so many animals right next to the camp. The first thirty minutes of the drive was literally cross country, with only hints of two tracks. Once we...

So all the pieces are all in place and we are now safely in Barafu camp, the base camp for our ascent of Kibo, and we head out at the ridiculously early time of midnight, in theory getting to Uhuru Peak about 8am. We had our evening briefing and people very quickly retreated to the tents trying to get some rest before the big adventure of the morrow. The incredible efforts of the porters have got everything and everyone here and so we are all set for the off.
Today's trek has been really interesting, starting with the Barranco wall which...

So here we are at Barranco camp. Unusually, and unnervingly looking at the rock wall on our left as we headed into camp this evening there is no visible path that I could see heading up and out of camp. As I said earlier, the Barranco wall is the one thing that has concerned me, and not being able to see the path out hasn’t exactly eased my nerves but we will have to see tomorrow morning what the reality holds.
Today has been a reminder that we are on a serious mountain with its own weather conditions as we have had the proverbial 4 seasons...

So our second day trekking has been good, a day of contrasts to yesterday but ultimately one of satisfaction. We are now at Shira camp, located at 3800m on the edge of the Shira plateau and rather exposed to the elements as there is nothing to protect from, or deviate, winds blowing down from the glaciers above or blowing across from Mount Meru to the North. Evidenced by the fact that as soon as we arrived at the high point of the walk 50m above this camp it suddenly started to cloud over and before 5 minutes were out, we had all stopped to...

So it has finally happened and we have taken our first footsteps on Mount Kilimanjaro. We left the hotel in reasonably good time (at 8am) for a 45 minute bus ride to the Machame gate which provided an amazing panorama of the mountain and the entire plateau leading up to, and over, Kibo. Here we met up with our porters (who will become integral to the success of this trip) and watched them weigh each of their loads, eventually haggling over the weight of the loads that they will carry for us on the mountain. To put it into perspective, they...

It was unanimous that today would be a rest day and I was oh so fine with that. I attempted to sleep in however was down at breakfast around 8:00am. I needed to go into town to do some banking as well as finalize some of our safari details so John had his friend Gabriele drive us in to town. Jim came along for the ride and Sian opted to enjoy her ‘day off’!
There is always some sort of challenge in Africa and today’s had to do with the ATM machine. It gave me my cash and then a note said you can not use this card at the bank any longer and...

Happy birthday to Charmayne!
Hooray, we are on our way back to Arusha, a proper bed and HOT showers! I awake excited to know that tonight I will be in a very comfortable bed at the Snow Crest in Arusha. Seconds later remember that we still need to hike down 14km and bus 2 hours before this can become reality.
The mood in camp is very jovial and the porters are just as excited to get home. Before heading back we are stopping in Moshi for a traditional Tanzanian lunch in honour of the porters and guides and I think they are all looking...

Sleep was quite irregular as several teams awoke before midnight for their summit attempt. We are lucky as we have time on our side so that we can have a full night’s sleep – or so we hope! Sian was ticked at a group of Germans that insisted on singing when they got up at midnight – she was not a happy camper at that moment.
At 3:00am, I heard numerous porters scrambling around and I wondered what was going on. Apparently there were a few groups that turned around early as they didn’t make it. Not surprising as so many of them take very...

I awoke to the sound of the ever present ravens, they are beautiful birds but man are they noisy! And do they love the campsites!!! The ravens here look very similar to ours with the exception of a collar of white feathers.
We are not rushing again today as we have a short 3 hour trek up to Barafu Hut at 4600m. We left at 8:45am and went ever so slowly (pole, pole) up, up and more up to Barafu. We stopped for a couple of breaks and finally arrived intact at 12:30pm, just in time for one of Antonio’s fabulous lunches served by sweet...

What a glorious sleep until 4:00am. I was having weird dreams and being at 4600m yesterday was causing a bit of restless breathing. I fell back to sleep until 6:00am when the ravens made such a racket, I got up.
Breakfast was a wee bit later as toady is a shorter day. Ema served us our porridge, eggs, bacon, toast and crêpes!! Very delightful.
By 8:45am we were on our way to tackle the Barranco Wall. It is a 300m imposing rock wall and we started up it at a snail’s pace. After a short bit the guides took our poles and we did about half an...

I awoke at midnight, and it was beautiful and clear outside with a million twinkling stars in the night sky. It was very cold and you could see frost on e ground.
The balance of the night it was only a light sleep and I was cold and damp. At 6am when Ema woke us up, I was already awake. At breakfast I found out that I wasn’t the only one that was cold in the night and none of us slept very well – at least we will all be on the same page today.
Breakfast was again porridge, eggs, toast, fruit, tea and coffee. I suspect I may gain weight on...